Early US Stamps w/ Cork Fancy Cancels, 10 Stamps

Fancy Cancels are Rare and Fun to Collect

These early stamps with fancy cancels are seldom seen by collectors. (The 10 cancels are all different, but the stamps may be the same.)

Cork fancy cancels are hand-carved postmarks that postal clerks across the country created and applied during the 1870s and 1880s. Before standardized machine cancels arrived, each post office was largely free to create its own cancellation device, and creative postal workers carved cork stoppers, wood blocks, and other materials into a wide range of designs. The result was an enormous variety of postmarks — stars, crosses, geometric patterns, wheels, and dozens of other forms.

The stamps themselves represent the classic 19th-century definitive issues of the 1870s and 1880s — the Bank Note era issues printed by the National, Continental, and American Bank Note Companies, featuring portraits of Washington, Lincoln, and other American statesmen in the finely engraved oval vignette style that defined U.S. stamp design for decades.